//------------------------------// // Evening uneven // Story: Birth of the Draconequus // by HareTrinity //------------------------------// "But sis, how are we EVAH gonna get our cutie marks if ya don't let us-" "Now that's enough of that," Applejack stated firmly, "If y'all were made to be cider makers y'all woulda managed one serving without destroying a month's worth o' apples!" The other two Cutie Mark Crusaders were staying quiet as they and the Apple sisters trotted through Sweet Apple Acres back towards Ponyville. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: CIDER MAKERS" had seemed like a good idea at the time but it was going to take them a while to get the apple juice out of their manes... Suddenly Applejack stopped. She was staring at one of the apple trees and slowly approached it, suspiciously eyeing it over. Scootaloo stared for a while before leaning to one side and whispering, "Hey Apple Bloom, what's Applejack doing?" "Ah dunno, it's- hey... Wait a minute..." Scootaloo watched Apple Bloom approach the tree in much the same manner. Leaning to her other side the orange pegasus pony whispered again, "Hey, Sweetie Belle, what are they doing?" "I don't know..." replied the little unicorn, watching as the sisters moved onto the tree one along, looking from one to the other. "No doubt about it!" Applejack announced, "Ah don't know how but these trees are in the wrong place!" "NO WAY!" exclaimed a voice from up one of the trees. "Told you so!" came a second voice. "I always thought she was making up that "tree recognition" thing!" "Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie? Y'all behind this?" The blonde farmer eyed the soil at the base of the trees, which showed no signs of disturbance, "...How in tarnation did you manage it?" The blue pegasus flew out of the tree, "Oh, you will NOT BELIEVE how RANDOM Pinkie is today!" The pink earth pony flew out after her, "Hi Applejack!" The three young fillies gasped but Applejack just scowled, stepping forward and taking an angry tone, "Now look here you two, Ah don't mind what sort of magic y'all do in your own time but you best put Mildred back next to Brackenridge right this instant! Why, if Granny Smith were to see this-" "Oké-doké!" Pop. Rainbow Dash looked smug, "See what I mean?" The CMC stared open-mouthed, speechless, and even Applejack was clearly taken aback this time. "Well, that certainly is mighty impressive..." "Oh, that's nothing, but I thought you'd be sure to notice if I switched them and then Rainbow Dash came along and she thought you wouldn't and so she said we could do this one little prank before heading back to Twilight!" "So... This is Twilight's magic?" asked Applejack, getting increasingly confused by the situation the more she learnt about it. "Nah, she just wants to check Pinkie's okay!" explained Rainbow Dash, taking hold of the pink pony by the shoulders, "So we best hurry back-" "Hey! What else can you do, Pinkie?" asked Scootaloo. "Could you swap other things around?" queried Sweetie Belle. "Pfft, I could switch your manes around if I wanted!" Apple Bloom seemed impressed by the mere concept, "WOW! What else can ya do?" "LOTS of stuff!" "But..." broke in Rainbow Dash, "We need to get back to Twilight..." "Hey now, we were heading over to Ponyville anyways, why not let her entertain the girls as we go?" suggested Applejack, "Can't say Ah'd mind seeing more of this myself, so long as y'all leave the trees out of it!" "Well... Okay..." Soon after giving in Rainbow Dash began to forget the urgency of Twilight's tone, getting pulled into the excitement of suggesting Pinkie's tricks. They were heading back to Ponyville after all, and the weather was pleasant enough; Twilight would be fine waiting for just a little longer. Besides, the three fillies seemed to be having a lot of fun... "So can ya turn into a dog, like our Winona?" Pop. Puppy Pinkie! "Hey, you said non-animals too?" piped up Sweetie Belle, "How about an origami bird?" Pop. Paper Pinkie! "You should turn into something cooler! Like a big cat!" suggested Scootaloo. Pop. Pinkie Panther! "Nice..." approved Rainbow Dash. Applejack nodded, "That sure is something... But don't it feel awkward, squeezin' yerself up like that?" "Nope!" replied Pinkie cheerfully, "Some of it feels even better than being a pony! I think sooner or later I'll find the perfect look!" "Ha, if y'all say so, think I'm mighty happy the way Ah am..." responded Applejack as the strange pony turned back to her normal self apart from the neck, tail, wings and the new "paws" like folded paper. The little orange pegasus nudged her friends before asking, "Say, Pinkie, do you need any HELP finding that look?" Apple Bloom perked up, "We wouldn't you want y'all to wait too long after all!" "Huh? Oh! Right! Can we Pinkie, pleeeaaase?" The pink pony nodded enthusiastically, each nod cranking up her neck, "Sure!" "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: PINKIE DESIGNERS!" The little orange pegasus gave the feet a scornful look, "Paper's too soft, you need scales! Like a dragon!" "Ooh, and more green!" chimed Sweetie Belle. Pop. Covered in green scales. "Well, she can't be all green, pink's who she is!" Pop. All the scales were gone apart from her neck and a line of them leading down her back. "Ooh, I like this!" They had arrived at Ponyville now. Despite the warm weather it was surprisingly quiet, though the group were too distracted by their shape-shifting member to notice. "Ummm..." Sweetie Belle concentrated, what would Rarity do? "Oh! How about some gems?" Scootaloo seemed unimpressed, "Gems? Why would she want gems?" Apple Bloom, however, nodded, "That could work, Ah think... Like a few down each side?" "That's a GREAT idea!" exclaimed Pinkie to her self-proclaimed designers, "Know who'll love that?" "Rarity!" Pinkie grinned up to Rainbow Dash, "Exactly!" "No, Rarity! She's over there! She looks worried..." The group curiously approached the unicorn and, following her gaze, looked around a nearby building to see a terrified Spike backing away from a strange creature. The beast seemed to be a horned puma with cloven hooves, its tail rearing up above it and ending with the head of a cobra. An angry cobra. All of the creature's teeth were bared, a deep growl emitting from it as it matched Spike's slow movement step by step, keeping the distance between them the same. Rarity spotted the group and waved them over. "Rainbow Dash! Applejack! ...Pinkie?" the unicorn paused only a moment before continuing, "Thank goodness you're all here! Fluttershy and I wanted to check on you, Pinkie, but then we came across this beast cornering dear little Spike! Fluttershy said not to do anything while she went to get Twilight but...!" "It's okay Rarity," Applejack patted the unicorn's shoulder, "Ah'm sure Fluttershy knows what she's doing." "Yeah!" added Rainbow Dash, "Fluttershy knows everything about animals, remember?" Rarity smiled weakly, "Thank you... Oh, Sweetie Belle, girls, you really shouldn't be here! Why don't you three go and wait in my boutique whilst we sort this out?" "But-!" "She's right, this here critter seems mighty angry, it'd help us concentrate if we didn't have to worry about-" "It's just over here... Oh dear..." came a quiet voice, and the ponies present turned to see Fluttershy and Twilight hurrying over, the purple unicorn's eyes widening as she turned the corner to see her faithful scribe's situation. "Oh, Spike! What is that thing?" "It's a chimera..." whispered Fluttershy, "We had a new one in the area but he was so small and sick, I'd been looking after him... I thought I'd masked his scent but it must have attracted the local pride's queen..." "So can't you go and tell her it's all a misunderstanding? Calm her down, like you did with the manticore?" asked Twilight, eyes fixed on Spike. "Oh, no, I can't do that!" Fluttershy whispered, "She's securing her territory! She might get violent if I tried now!" "...Alright, y'all stay back, I guess I better try to-" "Applejack, wait!" The yellow pegasus grabbed hold of her friend. "We can't just run in there, if anything happens to her then her pride will come looking! Oh, if I only had time to go back and get the one from my garden, but he's still ill, I was hoping Twilight would be able to-" "To do what? Magic? From over here? It can get tricky around magical creatures, Fluttershy, and it's already so close to Spike!" "Oh... Maybe some sort of spell to distra-" Rarity gasped; Spike was now pressed up against a building, the chimera still approaching, both heads hissing threateningly. Applejack stepped forward. "We don't have the time! Ah'm sorry Fluttershy, but the best we can do now-" Pop. Next to Fluttershy was a new creature, bearing striking resemblance to a large, frizzy, pink, kitten with dainty hooves a cute little snake tail. It bounced jovially over to Spike and landed in front as the chimera lifted a paw, causing it to pause. "Oh!" gasped Fluttershy. "Will... Will that work?" asked Twilight, looking to her yellow friend. "Well, maybe... If there WAS another pride here they'd certainly back off for now..." Fluttershy rose her voice to call over, "Pinkie, they base who's in charge on size, you need to be BIGGER!" The pink chimera's body started to swell like a balloon and the true chimera slowly backed away, watching as the new creature's heads started towering over its own. Soon it was two, three times its size! The chimera's snake tail hid between its legs as the beast backed down, soon turning and fleeing from the village. The pink chimera gave a triumphant mew. "Um, Pinkie...?" Looking behind her she saw that Spike was being pressed into the building by one of her legs. Pop. Pony at last! "SPIKE! Are you okay?" "My little Spikey Wikey, is anything hurt?" The little dragon shakily sat up as the unicorns rushed over to him, nuzzling him affectionately, "I'm okay, but can we do things a little faster next time?" With the chimera gone the residents of Ponyville were beginning to come outside, whispering among themselves and curiously approaching the little group that had scared the creature away. "Oh, Pinkie, that was wonderful..." "Fluttershy's right, ya really saved the day!" "Well DUH!" broke in Rainbow Dash, "Pinkie always has our backs, you should know that!" "Spike, take a no-!" Twilight paused, seeing her little dragon friend relaxing in Rarity's affections, and smiled. Using her magic she brought up a scroll and quill and started writing, narrating her words as she did so, "Dear Princess Celestia, "Today I learnt a very important lesson about trusting your friends. It can be hard to work out what others are thinking and sometimes friends do things you don't expect! However, it might be that you just need to trust in their judgement and, in the end, the pony's true nature will turn out to have been there all along!" "Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." Finishing the note Twilight gave it to Spike and went to pull Pinkie into a hug, "Thank you so much! I'm sorry I got so worked up over your new magic; whatever it is we'll work it out at your pace!" Ponyville's inhabitants who had arrived as Twilight wrote her letter cheered. "Aww, it's okay Twilight! I know you were just looking out for me! Hey, know what this calls for? A PARTY!" "That's a great idea! Come on everypony, we can use my library!" "Woohoo!" Pinkie got some strange looks as she popped into her newest preferred form, but worries were quickly dismissed as Applejack just laughed, "Say now, if ya aren't starting to look like a big ol' carnival float!" Pinkie started to bounce along, leading the way to the library, "Ooh, I LOVE those! When I was little I always wanted to make them and this one time-" The Cutie Mark Crusaders were suddenly at her side, Apple Bloom getting them back on track, "We were about to try gems, right?" So, as the sun began to touch the horizon, ponies slowly filed into library. Twilight smiled, watching them. Another day had ended well with the help of her best friends. Rarity and Spike were on their feet now and the three of them started towards the library... "Mare of purple, listen I plead, there is a scroll that you must read!" Inside the house one pony suddenly noticed the unicorns' absence. "Hey, where's Rarity and Twilight?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Oh, I think I saw them and Spike talking to Zecora..." whispered Fluttershy. "Pfft, they're going to miss the party! You wait here, I'll be right back!" The yellow pegasus considered following but was caught by Applejack handing out drinks. Besides, Rainbow Dash was only going to fetch their friends from outside, what could go wrong?